Rolling in the Windy City since 2015

Year in Review

January

I started the year off right with a Kingdom Death: Monster campaign. I built a batch of new survivors and watched in disbelief as they met their demise in the most horrific ways imaginable. I do love KD:M.

January was also Polar Vortex. I took an early war Partisan force to this one-day, three-game tournament and won Best Sports!

February

As is tradition, the majority of February was spent in crunch time for Adepticon. Ben and I had to finish our Kriegsmarine / Grenadiers army for Bolt Action Doubles, but we did find time for a few other games as well. We continued the Massive Darkness campaign (as of Dec. 21 we are still not done!) with Tom and played Weta Workshop’s amazingly produced but disappointing GKR: Heavy Hitters.

March

Adepticon is always the highlight of my hobby year and 2018 was no exception! I TO’d for the first time – Bolt Action Combat Patrol, Ben and I won Best Theme in Bolt Action Doubles, Dexter took Best Axis General at Combat Patrol, I took a hobby class with the legend that is Duncan Rhodes and just had the best of times with the whole crew.

April

With all the historicals I was painting I needed a break. So, during April I painted up a set of the Wandering Monsters from CMON’s Massive Darkness and had an absolute blast painting all the colors that are not German field grey. I also had a chance to play in a Warhammer Underwolrds event at Adam’s shop. Man, what at fantastic game. I need to get the new set – those Moon Clan are too fun.

May

It was a 12-hour drive to Warlord Games Con. Was it worth it? Not at all. Did we have fun? Damn right we did. Besides a disappointing Bolt Action tournament, we went and saw Deadpool 2. Actually, that alone was worth the drive.

Preparation for Operation Sting was were the majority of my hobby time went in May. My goodness I’m I glad I started early. That army look much, much longer than I thought it would.

June

The Chicago Dice Travel Team was in full swing! We rolled up to the Bugeater GT and DieCon for two great tournaments. That was 11 games of Bolt Action over the course of two weekends. Bugeater has become a club favorite and we can’t wait for the next one!

Operation Sting prep continued…

July

I started a new KD:M campaign that is still on-going! We’ve played more Lantern Years than any campaign I’ve been involved with before and it’s just the most insane game you can imagine. July was also the arrival of one of my new favorite games – A Song of Ice and Fire: The Miniatures Game from CMON and Darksword. Ranks and flanks are back baby!

Oh, and of course, serious hobby time for Operation Sting.

August

With a family vacation, a couple beer festivals and a few cabin trips I didn’t accomplish much hobby in August. But there was no shortage of games! Played a bunch of classics with my brothers and sister – Codenames, Lords of Waterdeep, Carcassone, Catan. It was a needed break from painting.

September

Back to it! Operation Sting was just over two months away serious work needed to be done. I was starting to feel the pressure with my army, I was creating a winter German army and the goal was to have a mix of winter uniforms, camouflage and greatcoats but I just couldn’t nail the camo scheme. I did find time for another session of Kingdom Death.

October

Another double event month! Ben, Dexter and I played in the Michigan GT and will be back for more next year! Then it was another clash with Dexter, Paul and myself at Dragonfall. While that was happening Dexter finished his incredible conversion work on his Sturmtiger for Operation Sting and I attend the MMSI Chicago Show – wow! I hope to enter next year.

November

Operation Sting is here! It really came down to the wire and without Paul helping Ben and I out with some final basing we might not have made it! It’s with great sadness that Operation Sting 2018 is the last one. Luckily, it ended on a high note. Between the four of us we had a great showing and and 20 solid games of Bolt Action (Part 1 – Part 2).

Post Sting I had planned on diving into Age of Sigmar with a Beasts of Chaos army but Adepticon 2019 is already fast approaching and I’ve lost my hobby thunder for AoS. I know I’ll circle back, just not sure when.

December

Started the month off with a delightful Friendsgiving! One of the highlights of the year for sure. Ben and I have dialed in on our theme for Adpeticon 2019 – U.S. Army at Kasserine Pass, it’s going to be nuts! Ben is already off the races with the tanks, I’m working on the infantry. I did get a game of ASOIF in and have another planned. I need to play a lot more to get ready for the tournament at Adepticon. Usually around the end of year hobby progress slows but games played goes through the roof – so far, this will be no exception!

2018 was a damn good year. What a great time to be in the hobby. So many games to play, models to paint and tournaments to attend.

2019 and beyond

I want to set down a few hobby goals for 2019. I’ve never been good at sticking to these lists as so many new projects come up throughout the year. But here is what I’m looking at right now:

TO for Adepticon Bolt Action Combat Patrol – Bigger and badder than last year

Enter at least two models into Crystal Brush – Current plan is for The Crusader and The Raider from Nocturna

Finish U.S. Army for Adepticon Bolt Action Doubles

Build and paint 6 point Late Roman SAGA warband and compete in a tournament

Build and paint an Italian armored platoon for Bugeater GT 2019

Run and play in a Battle of France Bolt Action campaign in summer 2019

Share this post:

Like this:

Published by Andrew

Andrew has been collecting and playing hobby games for over fifteen years. Andrew can be reached for commission work and review requests at andrew@chicagodice.com
You can follow Andrew's hobby progress on Instragram @chicagodice
View all posts by Andrew